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Hi

Someone has asked me to build them an acoustic which is great news but he wants it in his words "all in black"

Not discussed any details yet but bit concerned about making something that if he doesn't take for any reason I am stuck with.

Thought it best to get some advice on here before taking it any further

Questions:
is there a naturally dark wood set I could offer to use ?

What's the best way to change wood if I have to colour stain/spray?



Thanks

Maybe Wenge for the back, sides and binding? No clue about the top though. Would look awesome with some of that ancient Sitka though I think.


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If I were going to build a nearly all black guitar, I would probably use ebony back and sides and find a really dark set of sinker redwood for the top. I don't like paint or dyes, but that's just me. No judgement if you want to.

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sweat the small stuff.

I know Charles Fox has built a few guitars with black tops.



I also found this one made by Tim Greenfield:



I'm not sure exactly how they dyed/stained the spruce, but I'm sure you can find out if you get in touch with them.

I would ask Hesh. Take a look at the black guitar in his avatar. Killer!

Alex

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Black woods or just opaque black color? Because it would be easy enough to just spray black nitro and call it a day.

You might want to look into the process of "ebonizing", which can achieve a very black (ebony-like) appearance with many hardwoods like mahogany, oak, walnut or acacia. I have recently been playing around with this as I want a black neck on my current build. I will be using a Tasmanian Blackwood neck blank and it can be made jet black after soaking in an ebonizing solution. The beauty of it is that you create truly “black wood”, to a depth of a milimeter or so, but the character of the timber (grain and pores) is still evident – unlike a painted surface.

The ebonizing technique is widely known in general woodworking circles, and there is lots of good instructional information on the web if you google the word "ebonizing". It involves preparing a solution of iron acetate (just soak some steel wool in a jar of vinegar for a week or two), and then using this to chemically alter the tannins in the wood, achieving a uniform dark appearance. It only works on timbers that have a high tannin content. You can intensify it by adding more tannin to the mix (strong black tea is a good source).

It won’t work on spruce (very little tannin), so you might have trouble making a black soundboard with this method. I don’t know if cedar or redwood, as alternative soundboard material, have enough tannin to work. You could experiment with some offcuts. If your customer is prepared to depart from the completely black concept, I agree with the suggestion that an ancient spruce top on an otherwise black guitar could look awesome.

You still have the problem that it is a black guitar, which is not a super-popular look. So if the customer doesn’t end up buying it you might have trouble moving it on. But surely some canny product placement on goth-fashion sites, or pitching to New Zealand rugby fans, might find a willing buyer? You could crack open a whole new luthier market niche.

Hi Braedyn,

Being a good Canadian Brother, I'll gently correct you.....That would be Michael Greenfield, also a good Canadian Brother.

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Lots of black guitars are desirable to someone and my Black Tiger(s) that had black tops only were inspired by both the Fox Ergo and traditional 1930's L-OOs that could be at times black. The historical precedence is there.

Black lacquer or black finish of your choice and perhaps clear coats too depending on the finish. I never did painted backs and sides but I used a lot of ebony and when under finish it looks like black pl*stic.....

I'm working on a black faced baritone. The sides and back are naturally colored rosewood. I'm using black lacquer for the top. If I were to do an all black guitar I might use maple or some other close grained wood under black lacquer.

If you don't get carried away on high priced woods (african blackwood , ebony , etc.) you won't have too much invested even if he backs out. Black guitars if well done (i.e. - flawless finish) look nice, and will find buyers.

This is my 1st and only adventure with a black top with a Bloodwood back and sides. The customer wanted the black top, I used the dye from Stewmac in lacquer sprayed with an air brush then clear lacquer sprayed in my normal way. I think this would look good on Macassar ebony, Ziricote, African blackwood, or other real dark back and sides.

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Nice Fred!!

Oh, of course! Darn this brain fog. Haha. Thanks for the correction!

I have only made one black guitar (not an acoustic), but I can tell you I found it difficult to make the finish look reasonably good. Tiny flaws and irregularities are quite visible, much more so than on natural finishes.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Gosh, I really want to build a black guitar now

So how do you prep the purflings for finishing or do you scrape it off after? Seems like if you taped it off it would create a visible ledge but I guess you could blend and melt that in with subsequent coats of clear lacquer.

Here's a black one I made. For some reason the top didn't need any black tint....